I have nothing against Crouch. He certainly plays very hard. But, good Lord, is he ever awkward and clumsy.

On the other hand, I’m no great fan of Beckham. It seems as though he spends all match lurking on the fringe of play, hoping for a corner or a free kick. At least Lennon gets in there and makes things happen.

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Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?

O’Brien and Balboa were commenting how hot it was going to be at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. They seem not to realize July is winter there and that the average July high in Pretoria is about 70 degrees. The average high in Johannesburg is in the mid to low 60s.

You know, not to demean anti-racism demonstrations or anything, but really, what is ?Say No to Racism? supposed to mean? Who?s it supposed to convince? Are there some folks out there thinking, ?Gosh, I?ve been on the fence about this whole racism thing, but seeing England and Portugal behind that banner has really pushed me into the anti-racism camp.?

I think the idea is that saying nothing while people make Hitler salutes in the stands gives tacit approval to that behavior. Obviously, the pre-game messages aren’t going to change how people think, but it might make them think that they shouldn’t be making monkey noises at black players during the games.

In light of their disgraceful behavior and undeserved win, I hereby announce my implacable opposition to all things Portuguese. For a start, I shall never eat at Nando’s ever again - it seems their “Be Portuguese!” advertising campaign is about to get very messy. But beyond that, I don’t know how to demonstrate my hatred of Portugal. I now know just how those people in the Middle East felt when they decided to boycott Denmark. Well, there’s Lurpak, and… and…

Btw, I had an argument here on BTF before the tournament about how the Brazil and Argentina sides weren’t much good, Brazil because of their poor defence, Argentina because of their baffling team selection. And right now it looks like neither will make the semis. Fess up, who was it?

Portugal looked a hell of a lot better than England. England should just be happy they were in a terrible group because they’ve sucked all tournament. Have they scored more than 2 goals on non-set pieces?

Incidentally, Professor Hat, I think you very much CAN write off Portugal. England didn’t play well, but were much the better side even with 10 men, up until the last 15 mins of extra time. Their defense is bad, so their midfield has to drop crazily deep to protect them, which makes them toothless going forwards. They have decent wide men, but no strikers to speak of, so they can sometimes look pretty, but there’s no killer blow. Against England they had an incredible amount of possession, and played for an hour against 10 men. Yes, England have an excellent defense, but by the end the players were absolutely out on their feet. And Portugal still couldn’t score.